Free Republic

>> He fought against the very communists that were responsible for the holodomor. He allied with the fascists in order to fight against the communists, that were in fact responsible for a famine in his country that killed as many Ukrainians as Hitler killed Jews.. <<

Yes, good point. It’s understandable and perhaps entirely excusable that the Ukrainians would ally themselves with the Nazis. A young man of military age would be in a situation in which he had to choose one bad side or the other. The oppression Ukrainians were most familiar with was their own at the hands of the Communists. Wikipedia says, “In 1944, Hunka was deployed into combat against Red Army forces on the Eastern Front of World War II.” No evidence has been cited that Hunka himself committed atrocities.

I regard the the sun as an essential component of the concept of a literal, historical day (also essential to evening and morning). There has never been an historical day since the English word “day” was first used in which the sun did not exist. (I’m not speaking of metaphorical uses of “day” but of literal historical uses.) If you don’t believe that’s so, I don’t know what I can say to convince you.

Correction: increases or decreases as the sun rises or falls in the sky.

>> Should we consider “morning and evening” to be literal? <<

Well, one characteristic of literal mornings and evenings is that light increases as the sun rises or falls in the sky, yet in Genesis the first three days have a morning and evening even though the sun is not created until the fourth.

>> It’s not all that bad, just stay away from Colfax Ave... <<

I’m surprised to hear Colfax Ave and Aurora singled out as being bad. I’d heard that Denver had declined greatly, though, since I was there over half a century ago. I used to ride my bicycle downtown along Colfax Ave with no concern at all. There was a park on the right that had a pond and a museum of natural history. It seemed like a nice place. There were some areas, I believe, near the railroad station around Larimer Street that seemed a bit like a slum, though.

Sorry, I meant “Teppe”, not “Tepee”.

[While I was writing, Tepee made the point I was about to make about “day”.]

I don’t see how persons who pay close attention to what Genesis says can take it to be literal history. It says that the sun wasn’t created until the fourth “day”. That’s not using the word “day” in the ordinary historical sense.

Also in Genesis 1 the order of creation of living beings is animals then man and woman. (Genesis 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good...27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” So according to Genesis 1, animals were created before both men and women.

Then, starting at Genesis 2:4 there’s a second creation story — “4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens...7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground...18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them...20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”

The order of the Genesis 2 story is man then animals then woman. So which is supposed to be the historical order — Genesis 1 (animals then man and woman) or Genesis 2 (man then animals then woman)?

Ordinarily “should be hunted down and shot” is mere rhetoric and not really a realistic attempt to incite an attack. The dictionary editor who made the revisions wasn’t named and probably there was no single person who made them. Threats to kill people — made in anger — or statements that they should be killed are not unusual, but fortunately rarely carried out. (For instance, at a press conference once, basketball coach John Chaney yelled “I’ll kill you” to his coaching rival John Calipari.)

Apparently “should be hunted down and shot” was not the full extent of the threats, though. According to the Orange County Register, “Twice he threatened to shoot and bomb company headquarters, prompting Merriam-Webster to close offices in Springfield and New York City for several days, prosecutors said. Hanson also wrote an email to the president of the University of North Texas in 2022 that said ‘You ought to be shot in the head and have your offices set on fire’”...

The threats that caused company headquarters to shut down for several days aren’t specified. If that happened, though, they may have been serious enough to merit some kind of criminal penalty. Political motivation may have influenced this prosecution (and the extent of the punishment for mere words), but this guy seems to be lacking in common sense. It’s understandable that people would wonder just how far he’d go.

Apparently this school is not located in some remote area where the students speak the language used for the name (Musqueam). It’s in the city of Vancouver — map (https://i.imgur.com/pJ5mQf8.jpg). That’s an old map. Now cartographers will have to contend with the new name (along with everybody else).

>> Looking at your headline [UMCRevMom’s, taken from YouTube], I’m guessing English is a second language for you. In any event, here is an American term to remember: Read the room. <<

Why don’t you explain the losing-loosing distinction in Ukrainian (or in English because a surprisingly large number of English speakers make that mistake too)? Apparently the word should be “losing”.

Russia’s losing should be good news both to Ukrainians and to Americans who don’t want that regime to increase its power (though Russians or anybody else being killed in war is at best a necessary evil). I doubt that this is near the end, but then I didn’t expect the Ukrainians to fight as well as they have.

As for reading the room, I’m in this room too, and I can spare a few minutes out of 24 hours to this topic. I’m tired of waiting for results from our third-world voting system.

Like some of the other persons in this thread I grew up poorer than the Cleavers. Also I was more of a nonconformist. Within my family we were outspoken and not so formally polite, but we were taught the same basic principles of right and wrong that Wally and the Beaver were. Being nice was not considered uncool.

True, the show may have been unrealistic at times when it comes to the goodness of the family, but on the other hand characters such as Eddie and Lumpy weren’t really as bizarre as comic figures on more recent sitcoms have tended to be. A good many things on the show were true to life. In the early episodes, especially, sometimes one of the characters would say a jewel of a line about childhood experiences — the more ordinary ones, not the traumatic ones — and I’d chuckle and think, “That’s a good observation.”

There were some jarring lines (for instance, the boys would say they enjoyed movies in which they “croak” people), put in there, I suppose, to counteract the over-good portrayal of the family — as if to say, see, we’re ordinary kids. What appealed to me, though, was its mostly gentle humor and basically good, benevolent attitude toward the treatment of other people.

I feel almost as if I’d lost a cousin I’d grown up with. He was of my generation, and I grew up watching the show and then watched its reruns for more than half a century. (Currently two episodes are on here every day.) The character Wally was a nice guy, and from what I could see when Tony Dow appeared in interviews and on some shows about ex-child actors, he was too.

Usually when I regret the passing of an actor or musician, it’s impersonal, and I just appreciate what they have contributed. This time it feels more personal.

>> “I can drive for like an hour and a half where I live and not even run into any humans.” <<

That’s pretty good driving.

Here's the shooting part and what precedes it without comments -- VIEWER WARNING: Uncut video of confrontation, shooting of Ahmaud Arbery (News4JAX). What I see is Arbery running by the right side of the truck, not having been shot at and not being blocked by anybody, when instead of continuing forward, he turns sharply to the left and crosses over and attacks Travis.

Blocking is not murder, and if he’d been blocked five times, it didn’t seem to have worked very well because in the final video there’s Arbery again, running down the road. That time too there was room to get by. Arbery ran to the right side of the parked truck without being shot at by either Greg or Travis, but then — with nobody blocking him and an open path ahead of him — he chose to turn sharply to the left, and cross over and attack Travis. That irrationally aggressive act cost him his life.

Look at the video -- VIEWER WARNING: Uncut video of confrontation, shooting of Ahmaud Arbery (News4JAX). If they'd wanted to kill him merely because of their knowledge of his trespass -- at night more than once captured on infra-red video -- and mere suspicion of theft, they could have done so well before the moment when the actual shooting took place. No firearm was even shown to Arbery until he was bearing down on Travis, running directly toward him when there was plenty of room on the other side.

Even if these guys had been evil (as evil as those who are now condemning them), they wouldn't have been stupid enough to shoot Arbery when he posed no threat to them. Where they went wrong, though, is in underestimating the stupidity, cowardice, and corruption of the people who would condemn them. They've been condemned as murderers, even though as Arbery ran by the right side of the truck, there was nobody blocking his way and the path to escape was open (DOESN'T THAT MATTER?) -- Travis had remained on the left side of the truck and had not fired, and neither had his father Greg (everything was fine so far) -- then Arbery irrationally and aggressively chose to turn sharply to the left, charge across in front of the truck, and attack Travis.

It's right there on the video, and yet a jury, backed by most of the country on both sides of the political spectrum, have concluded that these guys are guilty of murder. I can't come close to expressing the disgust I feel at that.

>> A lot of them think those men deserve a guilty verdict for being so stupid as to not understand the politics involved. <<

Yes, it’s sad. They don’t care about justice. Most of them don’t have a clue about what really happened and won’t bother to find out.

"Goober", "rednecks" -- your prejudice has been noted. You don't know the facts. Travis remained on the left side of the truck, and Arbery -- with nobody blocking his way and an open path of escape in front of him -- chose to turn sharply to his left and charge Travis: -- VIEWER WARNING: Uncut video of confrontation, shooting of Ahmaud Arbery (News4JAX). .

Uh..in those 25-30 times did you watch the part in which the shooting takes place? Didn't you see Arbery, having run past the truck on the right side, with nobody blocking his way and with an open path of escape in front of him -- turn sharply left and charge across the front of the truck to attack Travis, who had remained on the left side -- VIEWER WARNING: Uncut video of confrontation, shooting of Ahmaud Arbery (News4JAX).

To find Travis and the others guilty of murder under those conditions was an evil thing to do. Yet most of the country, on both sides of the political spectrum, made up their minds based on ignorance, media misrepresentations, or political expediency, and don't give a damn.

To understand what really happened, I ask persons willing to devote more than a minute or so to what was a matter of life or death to view my posts in another thread starting with post 51 and the plain, uncommented video that follows.